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Potsdamer Platz

Discover the culture capital of west Berlin and the new development and modern reconstruction it has to offer

Rating: 5 out of 5 by EveryTrail members

Difficulty: Easy

Length: 1.1 miles

Duration: 1-3 hours

Family Friendly

Overview :
Potsdamer Platz is one of the more lively districts in west Berlin, with many new developments in recent years. You can find more... more » museums than you can see in a day, a very modern Sony Center Complex with theaters, malls, restaurants and reminders of the Berlin Wall all within a couple of minutes.

Almost all of Potsdamer Platz was destroyed or heavily damaged during World War II. After the war, when the Berlin Wall went up, part of this area was known as "No Man's Land" and deserted. After the fall of the wall, life came back to this area. Today it is one of the larger culture, shopping and dining hubs in the city. To the east you can see see remnants of the wall and the open, abandoned grass park reminding you of a recent time when the city was split.

Today, Potsdamer Platz is very modern, with the spectacular Sony Center, impressive Kulturforum, shopping malls and one of the most popular Christmas markets near the end of the year.

As one of the major public transportation hubs, you may find yourself passing through this area quite often, but it deserves enough time to see everything it has to offer. less «

Points of Interest

Potsdamer Platz is one of the larger public transportation hubs, where the S-Bahn and the U-Bahn cross. Once you leave the station, most people head west to the Sony Center, Kulturforum or the Arkaden Mall, but there are worthwhile attractions to the west (including pieces of the wall) toward Mitte.

In the late fall, there is a spectacular... More Christmas market (as there are all over Berlin, or Germany for that matter), as well as a sledding hill and ice skating rink just outside of the station.Less

2. Sony Center

The Sony Center opened in 2000 and is quite spectacular to put it simply. Almost this entire area was completely destroyed or damaged during World War II. After the wall was built, this area was known as "No Man's Land" and nothing was reconstructed. After the fall of the wall in 1989, new and impressive buildings began to spring up... More.

The Sony Center has it all--shops, restaurants, hotels, offices, museums, LegoLand--all under a bright canopy that changes colors in a flashy manner. It is difficult not to be drawn to this complex at night and to sit at one of the many great restaurants as you people watch.

You will find this sculpture just before reaching the Tiergarden, which was originally meant as a hunting grounds for the king of Prussia. The sculpture is large enough that you can walk between either side through the entire length.

The Berlin Philharmonic was voted No. 3 out of the top 10 European orchestras in 2006, and has remained one of the top orchestras in Europe since. The orchestra was founded in 1882 and continues to play today. If you have the time to get tickets, it makes for an unforgettable night.

Be aware: Germans like their encores and the orchestra has known... More to perform several encoures and curtain calls and bows into the double digits. This can place a toll on your hands when clapping for so long, and many people just end up leaving with the applause echoing in the background.

The Kulturforum was west Berlin's answers to Museum Island in the east after WWII. East Berlin had its own culture center consisting of several renowned museums, and the west needed its own since it was difficult (or impossible) to cross between East and West Berlin at the time.

The Kulturforum is home to the Berlin Philharmonic, the City Library... More, the Museum of Musical Instruments and Picture Gallery, the Arts Library, the New National Gallery and several other museums.

A lasting effect of the Berlin Wall is that many art museum genres have a museum in both East and West Berlin--each side needed its own museum when they were separated; now that they are unified, all the museums remain.

This Neo-Romanesque church was constructed in 1846 when the population was rapidly expanding and there was high demand for another parish.

During World War II the entire Potsdamer Platz area was destroyed (this is why you see so many modern buildings), but this church remained much more intact. After being reconstructed in 1960 with a new... More interior, the church remains a reminder of the area's architectural glory.

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